Shopify Pricing Plans in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf: Real Cost
Shopify pricing plans for Saudi Arabia and the Gulf: subscription, transaction fees, gateway fees, theme and apps, with examples of the real monthly cost.
Author: Mousa Alhelo · Published · 6 min read
Shopify pricing is more than the monthly subscription shown on the plans page. The real cost of a Shopify store in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf is made of the subscription, Shopify’s transaction fees, the local payment gateway’s fees, the theme and app subscriptions. This article breaks down each element, presents the plans with approximate figures as published in 2025, and works through realistic examples so you know what you will actually pay before you open your store.
The main Shopify plans and their approximate prices
Shopify offers four core plans. The figures below are approximate USD prices as announced in 2025 and differ between monthly and annual billing. Always check the official pricing page before subscribing, because the company updates its prices periodically:
| Plan | Approx. on annual billing (per month) | Approx. on monthly billing | Transaction fee with a third-party gateway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | about 29 USD | about 39 USD | about 2% |
| Shopify | about 79 USD | about 105 USD | about 1% |
| Advanced | about 299 USD | about 399 USD | about 0.6% |
| Plus | from about 2,300 USD per month on a long-term contract | by agreement | lower, per contract |
An important note for Gulf merchants: the transaction fee in the last column applies when you use a gateway other than Shopify Payments, which is the prevailing situation in most countries of the region. It is charged on top of whatever the gateway itself takes.
The five elements of the real cost
1. The monthly subscription
The clearest number and the easiest to plan. The gap between annual and monthly billing is large enough to be worth considering once you are confident the store will run for a full year.
2. Shopify transaction fees
A percentage of every order that goes to Shopify when you use a third-party gateway. On Basic it is roughly 2%, so every 10,000 SAR of sales costs about 200 SAR. This number is what makes an upgrade pay off as sales grow.
3. Local payment gateway fees
Every gateway in Saudi Arabia, the UAE or Jordan charges a percentage of the transaction and usually a small fixed fee, with different rates for cards, mada, Apple Pay and instalments. We cover the options in Shopify payment gateways in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the Gulf.
4. The theme
Dawn is Shopify’s free default theme and is enough for many stores. Paid themes on the Theme Store are a one-time purchase with no monthly subscription, and they are worth it when you need built-in features such as advanced filters or an Arabic-ready design.
5. Apps
This is where hidden costs creep in. Reviews, translation, scheduled sales, WhatsApp, shipping: every paid app adds a monthly subscription. Our rule is to install an app only for a function you actually need now, and to review the app list every three months.
Worked example: a new store in Saudi Arabia
Imagine a new store selling about 20,000 SAR per month on the Basic plan with annual billing and a local gateway. This is an illustrative example with hypothetical numbers:
| Item | Approximate calculation |
|---|---|
| Basic subscription | about 29 USD per month |
| Shopify transaction fees (about 2%) | about 400 SAR |
| Gateway fees | per your gateway contract, usually a percentage of each transaction |
| Theme | free (Dawn) or a one-time purchase |
| Apps | one or two essential apps |
The lesson: at 20,000 SAR in sales, transaction fees already exceed the subscription itself. As sales rise, the difference between 2% and 1% becomes the number to watch.
When does upgrading to Shopify or Advanced actually become cheaper?
The calculation is simple: the difference in transaction fees between two plans multiplied by your monthly sales, compared with the difference in subscription.
- From Basic to Shopify: you save about 1% of sales. If the subscription gap is about 50 USD per month, the upgrade starts paying off when sales pass the equivalent of about 5,000 USD per month.
- From Shopify to Advanced: you save about 0.4% of sales against a larger subscription gap, so it pays off at much higher sales, and with it come the custom reports and advanced shipping tools that large stores genuinely need.
These are approximate percentages based on prices published in 2025; apply the same formula to current prices.
Costs that do not appear on the pricing page
- Domain: bought from Shopify or an external registrar on an annual subscription.
- Professional email: not included; you need a separate email service.
- Photography and content: product images and good Arabic and English copy are a real cost, but they determine your conversion rate.
- Store build: if you work with a Shopify Partner, this is a one-time cost that depends on catalog size and customisation. We do not publish our service prices because every store is different, but we provide a written quote after understanding the need.
The complete picture of what an online store costs, with every component, is in the cost of building an online store in the Gulf.
How to lower your Shopify cost without sacrificing quality
- Pay annually once you trust the store’s continuity.
- Use apps that cover more than one function. Our Sale Scheduler by SalePilot, for example, covers bulk price editing, scheduled sales and a countdown timer in one app (salepilot.esafqa.com).
- Negotiate your gateway rate as volume grows; gateways offer tiered pricing by volume.
- Review your plan every quarter with the formula above.
- Use the trial period to set everything up before billing starts; we explain this in Shopify login and free trial setup.
From our experience: when we built the Fragrance Hub store with more than 2,000 original perfumes, we started on the plan that covered the actual need and put the budget into what moves sales: a customised Kalles theme in Arabic and English, a Merchant Center connection, and a Performance Max campaign that reached a 4.6x return on spend before scaling. A more expensive plan does not sell more; the right setup does. That is what we deliver in our Shopify store development service.
Conclusion
Shopify pricing is transparent on the subscription but needs careful arithmetic on transaction fees, gateway fees and apps. Start with the plan that covers your need, watch the ratio of transaction fees to sales, and upgrade when the formula proves the upgrade is cheaper. If you want a written estimate of the complete cost of your store before you commit, message us on WhatsApp and we will prepare it based on your catalog and market.
Want this applied to your store?
E-SAFQA builds and runs Shopify stores and their ads. Message us on WhatsApp for a free audit.
Frequently asked questions
How much is the Shopify Basic plan?
Based on prices published in 2025, Basic starts at roughly 29 USD per month on annual billing and roughly 39 USD on monthly billing. Current figures are always on Shopify's pricing page.
Does Shopify charge a fee on every sale?
When you use a third-party gateway, which is the common case in the Gulf, Shopify adds a transaction fee of roughly 2% on Basic down to about 0.6% on Advanced, on top of the gateway's own fees.
Do I pay VAT on my Shopify subscription in Saudi Arabia or the UAE?
Shopify applies taxes according to your billing country and local regulations. Check the invoice in your admin or ask your accountant what applies to your business.
When does Shopify Plus make sense?
When sales reach a level where lower transaction fees, checkout customisation and advanced automation are worth more than the subscription difference, which is typically the territory of large brands and enterprises.
Can I change my plan later?
Yes. You can upgrade or downgrade at any time from the plan settings in your admin without affecting the store or its data.